Blog - November 7, 2021

Day 7: The November Happiness Challenge 2021

We once had a cat. Her name is (was?) Malikah Armani.

While growing up, we always had cats. I think my parents got cats so that they would wade rats away mainly. But they also realized their cuteness and how nice it really was to have them as pets. So you would always find cats in our house.

I remember that whenever a cat got pregnant, we barely knew, until they are almost due and they get really slow. You know, cats are regularly very slow so it’s hard to tell when they get slower but if you are observant, you’d see it. Then the cat would find a cool place in my mum’s wardrobe and have her babies, all by herself. It was such an intriguing thing for me. I watched wide eyed on a particular day my mum was bringing out all the babies and we counted about six. We already had people waiting for the babies to come so my mum gave them out after some weeks. Poor Mother cat😭.

I promised myself that I’d get a cat as pet when I got married because of the experience I had while growing up. So I started stylishly telling my husband ( I’ll refer to him as W henceforth ) about it before we got married. He was surprised that I’d want to rear a car when the common thing was for people to be scared of it. He didn’t outrightly say no, but he didn’t say yes either. I knew there was a space for me to apply pressure so that he would give in. Emi baddo.

On a particular day in 2018, I saw someone post on twitter about having kittens she needed to give out, so I sent a message to her and indicated interest. I spoke to W again about it and said I had even found someone who was willing to give me one. I was pregnant, so it was a great moment to emotionally blackmail him, I mean, pregnant women always have cravings and weird wants right? Well, this pregnant woman wanted a cat.

He agreed to it and off we went to the lady’s house. We brought our cat home and I named her Malikah. I particularly liked that she was already litter trained , so that meant we didn’t have to deal with the smell of shit and urine everywhere round the house. She would wiggle herself into the corner where her litter was and would sort herself, it was the cutest thing. I also had the pregnancy excuse to not ever touch her litter or empty it ( pregnant women should stay away from cat litters ) so W did all of the honorsHaha what a nice time.

Then came the struggle of feeding. She was so choosy. So W would go to the different shopping malls to get her varieties and she would gobble them up. She like sardines too, the canned ones. Basically, Malikah liked expensive food and wouldn’t look at cheap or random food twice. W did all of the taking care of and it was so nice to watch him do it. He once mentioned that he didn’t even understand again who wanted the cat, because why is he the one bathing, feeding and caring for her? 😂😂 He grew so fond of her that her always ask after her when he was at work and he called.

She also liked to jump on everyone. Arrrgg it was so annoying. You’d be sitting on your own and you’d just see this white fur jumping on you. I guess it was a ‘kitten’ thing, because she outgrew it and one day, she just stopped jumping.

I loved how she liked to snuggle up to me. My pregnancy days when I had to stay home alone while W went to work were the days we got very close. It was just us two at home, so once I get on the prayer mat to pray, she’d stay beside me. If I sleep off, I’d wake up to her sleeping right beside me. She also liked attention so much, and got jealous anytime W returned and I gave him a hug. No jokes.

I had a great time with Malikah, and in subsequent posts, I’ll gist you guys about how she once got lost and we got so worried and searched for her everywhere. I’ll also talk about how we eventually let her go.

Today, we are going to feed a pet around us. Be it a Cat, Dog, Hen or any one you see around . If you can’t see any, you surely have a friend who has a pet right? Please send them N1,000 or any amount you have and tell them it is intended for their pet’s feeding tonight. It is very rewarding, and you’d want to do it again.

Malikah’s picture didn’t replace mine o. Here you go

I’ll be back. OBA